What is PARCC? PARCC raises the bar for students by finding innovative new ways to measure progress through critical thinking and problem-solving. Watch a short video about the PARCC difference . . . Untangling PARCC’s new testing schedule Score one for public activism and another for common sense. This week, the governing board [...]Read More »

Louisiana Common Core compromise earns support from all sides — including Bobby Jindal It seems unlikely that anything will stand in the way of the Common Core compromise barreling its way through the Louisiana Legislature now that Gov. Bobby Jindal has finally signed on to the agreement. Are New Common Core Tests Better Than Old Multiple-Choice Exams? [...]Read More »

Google Updates Its Classroom App with New Features A year ago, Google marked Teacher Appreciation Week in the US by announcing the arrival of Google Classroom. Today, in celebration of the anniversary, Google is adding new features to… iPhone Apps for Readers: How Tech Can Help Young Readers Grow There are millions [...]Read More »

Want Free Online Education? Online education has evolved from simply offering hobby-focused lessons to those involving higher learning. Some of the popular online educations sites that offer free online courses include EdX, MIT OpenCourseware, CodeAcademy, Coursera and Moz. Top 10 eLearning Skills that eLearning Professionals Should Have What eLearning skills does an eLearning professional need [...]Read More »

The ACT sits alongside the SAT as the two most popular standardized tests for college admissions in the US. In past decades the ACT was primarily used in non-coastal states where it has remained more popular to present, in contrast to coastal states where the SAT has been more frequently used. However, the spread of [...]Read More »

In recent years, a growing number of mobile and digital Apps have been developed to help students prepare for SAT and ACT tests. These include Apps that play like games, Apps for online tutoring, and Apps that allow students to answer practice questions and compare scores with other users. The many options vary in content, [...]Read More »

The challenge with finding good YouTube videos to support learners is: how to sort through all those channels and videos to identify the quality content you need, without spending countless hours watching video yourself? Read More »

More and more universities are offering free online content – everything from lectures to course notes to past exams. The purpose of these programs, in many cases, is to help make education free and available worldwide, without even the need to register or sign up. Read More »

As students’ needs are better understood and addressed by digital content providers, the adoption of ebooks will undoubtedly increase. The students, after all, are the ones who need to study. They will choose the best learning tools they can get for their money. Read More »

Do you use Apple’s iPad for educational purposes, one-on-one and/or in the classroom? How do they help students learn better, and/or help you teach better? What do you do with them that you couldn’t do with other tools, like a chalkboard or a laptop? Read More »

What’s likely to happen, like incorporating cameras into phones, is that e-book readers will simply be incorporated into our PCs, laptops and mobile devices. So ultimately it’s not about selling a Kindle or a Nook, but about selling electronic content for learners and readers. Read More »

The YouTube Teachers channel invites you to “spend more time teaching, less time searching. This well-organized channel “was created to help teachers use educational YouTube videos to educate, engage and inspire their students.” Read More »

The 2011 Edublog Awards winners were announced several weeks ago by the Edublog Awards Blog. The purpose of this blog, which is sponsored by the edublogs.org educational blogging service, is to promote and demonstrate the educational value of learner and teacher blogs and websites.Read More »

Enter the badge, “… a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest…” that can be earned in almost any learning environment. Badges can motivate and support ongoing learning, validate skills and education, help build reputation and confirm knowledge acquisition. Read More »

This last decade was a challenging one for marketers, but it doesn’t have to be for tutors who need online marketing know-how. The arrival of social media, smart phones and growing connectivity to the internet changed all the rules for many marketers who were used to traditional methods of attracting business. Suddenly you didn’t need [...]Read More »

Though you may have a defined strategy for helping your students achieve their best scores on the SAT, you may from time to time want to mix up your tutoring experience and connect with your students on their level. Online video is a great way for tutors to connect and engage with students online and [...]Read More »

Your website is a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. However, it’s a powerful tool that too many tutoring companies don’t know how to weld properly. Many tutoring companies may have a marketing strategy for their business, but they fail to interweave the fabric of their communications into a seamless marketing plan they can follow. [...]Read More »

Infographics can change the way we learn, the way we see information put in front of us. They help us digest that information and leads us to draw important conclusions more swiftly. After doing a little research online I was able to discover 10 gorgeous infographics on education that do more than simply show information, [...]Read More »

Every day in a normal classroom, a math teacher stands up at the front of the room and lectures to students. The students who struggle sit in silent vigil while teachers continue foward, past the point where they got hung up. If the teacher is sick, tired or exhausted, they bring that up to the board [...]Read More »

We took a little “mental health” day on the blog last week and skipped over our new installment on the Learning Analytics blog, “5 Tutoring Blog Articles to End Your Week.” Instead we put the finishing touches on our newest and greatest e-book “ACT vs SAT: Which Test Should You Choose?” If you haven’t downloaded [...]Read More »

Inbound Marketing is all about pulling users to your website rather than pushing them there with advertising messages and cold calling. However, to run a successful Inbound Marketing campaign for your tutoring company, you should also take advantage of off-site marketing opportunities where you can make your name for yourself within a niche community, share [...]Read More »

This is the second installment of our new weekly round-up “5 Tutoring Tips to End Your Week”! Last Friday, I launched the new version of the round-up thus moving away from featuring general education blogs and articles and shining the light on tutors and education consultants who blog. As always, if you have a recommendation [...]Read More »

We’ve talked before about the opportunities that exist for tutors who use local GPS check-in service FourSquare, but a new development in the way that FourSquare supports location-based “specials” may help tutoring companies and centers attract more business, and encourage students to take advantage of tutoring services. On March 9th, 2011, FourSquare unveiled a whole [...]Read More »

While building your online brand for your tutoring business, you may reach a point where you realize the magnitude of what you committed yourself to. No matter what industry you’re in, launching a new product or a new website requires a solid plan which leans on a team of virtual assistants. There’s a general rule [...]Read More »

So, I’ve decided to change the pace on the Socrato blog a bit. On Fridays I normally run a column called “” where I hand pick articles on education throughout the blogosphere. However, I’m beginning to wonder if they are as helpful as I’d like them to be for our readers. So, I’ve decided to [...]Read More »

No matter what industry your business belongs to, blogging is a very valuable use of your time. Blogging has the potential to engage your audience, attract prospects, and share thoughts and ideas which can thus be spread in the social media world. Tutors considering starting a blog or tutoring companies who are already blogging may [...]Read More »

If you’ve been blogging consistently for a few months or years now, you may be wondering how to get more mileage out of existing blog content. After all, not every prospect is going to see every tweet you send, every Facebook post you make and subscribe to your blog to get consistent updates. While some [...]Read More »

Perhaps its Oscar fever for the Social Network, but this week I’ve got Facebook on the brain and it’s my intention to share it with you. If you’re just tuning in, within a week I’ve created two blog post with the intention of helping tutors get the most out of Facebook. If you want to [...]Read More »

With 596 million users and counting, Facebook is becoming much more than a social network – it’s become part of the very fabric of modern communication as we know it. Facebook facilitates the sharing of ideas between people, businesses, brands and the rest of the world. Twenty years ago, when there was no Facebook, many [...]Read More »

When bloggers first start out, they agonize about their lack of comments, lack of blog traffic, and sometimes even the lack of support from family & friends. You might wonder at first, “If my family is not reading my blog, who will?” You need to amass a unique and personal following for your blog, but [...]Read More »

So, you’re a tutor with a blog! Fantastic. Creating blog content is a fantastic way to get in touch with your feelings about your career, attract new traffic to your blog and also attract new followers on social media sites. A study by a marketing software company HubSpot, found that small businesses that blog get [...]Read More »

Can a tweet or Facebook status affect a website’s overall ranking? What about the quality of your followers? According to Matt Cutts, head of Google’s WebSpam team, they sure can! In a recent Google Webmaster Help Video, Matt Cutts answers a question (derived from this Danny Sullivan post “What Social Signals Do Google & Bing [...]Read More »

First off, congratulations to all the nominees and winners of the 2010 Edublog awards! I think it’s truly amazing that so many educators are using blogging as a way to supplement their teaching careers. It’s a valuable form of expression and one that requires patience on behalf of the writer. I know how tough it [...]Read More »

When it comes to making changes and adopting new technologies such as e-books, education officials are as slow-moving as a two-toed sloth. However, two announcements in the technology space this week could have a major affect on classroom life. Google E-books Launches This week Google launched their anticipated e-books store, Google e-books, thus shaking up [...]Read More »

In the past you may have relied on word of mouth recommendations to help you build your tutoring business, but today it’s just as important to build and maintain your online persona, too. On the Social Media Examiner, David Garland spoke to the topic of effectively managing one’s online reputation. In the article, he spells [...]Read More »

Challenges are life’s little lesson plans, and teachers, tutors and education consultants get their fair share of them in the workplace. Their problems range from communicating properly with IT personnel, working with tighter and tighter budgets, and continuing to promote edtech in the classroom when even though many are constantly seeking to protect children from [...]Read More »

Working remotely has its perks; you can set your own schedule, work from home, and perhaps even grab an extra hour of sleep in the morning in lieu of a morning commute. However, if your business doesn’t have a physical address (aka you’re working from home or your local Starbucks), you may be wondering how [...]Read More »

If you’re a tutor, then you’re ready to make your first online video, tonight. Any tutor will tell you that tutoring requires people skills, unending patience, and an assertive, friendly nature. Tutors must be well-spoken and able to capture a student’s attention for long periods of time. They must explain a single subject matter multiple [...]Read More »

For years every educator has struggled with finding new and modern ways to connect with students and engage them in the learning process. The problem is students are often ahead of the curve, adopting new technology and communication tools while our educators are woefully behind. It”s not that everyone should believe that learning should be [...]Read More »

Data is extremely valuable for all of us in the education industry; we”ve got to consume a lot of it to make valuable decisions for our students and schools. However, when you spend too much time with your nose in your computer, e-reader or a book, it”s easy to forget what information looks like. That”s [...]Read More »

This week, after 30 years of production, Sony finally retired their cassette Walkman. The loss of the Walkman to the GoodWill in the sky caused me to think of all the things that have become obsolete in my lifetime thanks to the Digital Age. Today, I rarely buy printed books. I read newspapers entirely online. [...]Read More »

There is no question about it. Content has been going digital and although the use of hard copy (paper) is still prominent in Education, very soon it will dwindle. We’re not saying it will disappear, but more and more activities that used to happen solely on paper, right from media for digesting content, to media [...]Read More »

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